Teacher 'five times over the limit' for driving

A schoolteacher's alcohol reading of more than five times the legal limit has stunned police.

The blood test from a 39-year-old relief teacher from Papamoa was revealed as 426 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80mg.

The highest alcohol level recorded in the past five years is 579mg.

The woman was found behind the wheel of her car in a Papamoa carpark on July 16 after concerned onlookers rang police, reported the Bay of Plenty Times.

She allegedly stalled her car, drove over a kerb and stalled again. A member of the public removed her keys, the newspaper said.

An initial breath test exceeded the machine's limit of 2000 micrograms per litre of breath.

She is the second schoolteacher and the fourth woman to return high alcohol readings in recent months.

West Auckland teacher Joanna Winifred Wright, 47, is defending a drink driving charge that alleges she was behind the wheel in March with a level of 1583 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath.

A 46-year-old Dunedin woman with a blood alcohol level of 426mg per 100ml of blood was last month jailed for six weeks.

Napier woman Elizabeth Stevenson recorded 368mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood - four and a half times the legal limit - after police stopped her in March. The 66-year-old was fined more than $1900 and disqualified for 10 months.

Senior Sergeant Ian Campion of the Tauranga strategic traffic unit said he had not come across a level greater than 426mg in his 30-year police career.

"That is an extremely high reading and would be very close the highest reading, I imagine. When you've got a blood alcohol reading of that level you're just a fatal or serious injury crash waiting to happen."

Dr Mike MacAvoy of the Alcohol Advisory Council said the average drinker with a 426mg reading would be "deeply unconscious".

He said the women's readings suggested "years of very heavy drinking and not a one-off ... I suspect that what we're dealing with here is a number of women whose alcohol problems have emerged probably because they tried to get behind the wheel of a car."